Another Take On New Orleans

Following yesterday’s Rifftides commentary about the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, I heard from fellow jazz journalist Larry Blumenfeld (pictured). Larry is a New Yorker who in recent years has spent much of his time in New Orleans. He writes from there for The Wall Street Journal and other outlets about the city’s recovery following Hurricane Katrina, about its legacy of music and, frequently, about its mores and politics. In a report from this year’s festival, he observed,

Beyond the Fair Grounds, in the real life of a city that a decade removed from utter disaster seems now rushing headlong toward a gentrified “new” New Orleans, such matters — especially whether the sound of music spilling out is heard as glorious or not — weigh heavy for those whose lives revolve around jazz and heritage long after the festival’s two weekends are done.

Larry reported extensively on big 2015 festival doings at the Fair Grounds and on smaller, often more interesting, ones throughout New Orleans. To read both parts, go here, then here.

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Comments

Thanks for sharing these two great articles by Larry B. Puts me right back in NOLA at The Fairgrounds Racetrack. Nice context about JazzFest’s relation to the current state of the city. Everything about that city and its people is another lesson in perseverance!

Haven’t been to NO since before the floods and found both pieces here interesting. They did shed more light on the idea of a festival, any kind of music festival, and the concomitant joys and woes. I was particularly interested in the information about Congo Square.

By contrast, today is Cinco de Mayo and on my usual walk through San Diego’s Old Town, I was surprised, and amused, to hear an older busker playing Brubeck’s “Take Five” on an acoustic steel-string guitar a couple of blocks from the colorful Latin music that kind of swept the area all day. Wherever there’s live music going on, I call it a Festival!

When is jazz not jazz? The non-jazz jazz that is being presented at so-called jazz festivals is simply part of a larger problem. Look at the former Concord Jazz record label – they now call themselves the “Concord Music Group” and they advertise almost no jazz on their website. The same is true with Verve Records – they are now the “Verve Music Group” and mostly advertise everything but jazz. The Sacramento Jazz Festival, a long-time Memorial Day Weekend festival that featured mostly “traditional jazz” (Dixieland) is now the Sacramento Music Festival and it is advertising such well-known jazz artists as the Tower of Power, Everclear, and Malo.

Jazz festivals and jazz record labels are primarily about making money and right now, the commercial possibilities of jazz are limited. They either are about the music or about the money, and unfortunately, money is winning.

Went to The Big Easy for the embarrassing-to-say first time late March. Loved all about itas far as multiple hangovers will allow. We watched all 4 seasons of Treme (all from Netflix-thanks). The Marsalises, Donald Harrison, Trombone Shorty all acted & played well in it. A must as a NOLA primer. We’re not disappointed & also glad to have Treme to add to the experience. There’s plenty of music all around to go around of every flavorCajun, Bulldog, Preservation Hall (sometimes with visiting rock starssuch blasphemy!)but it’s ALL GOOD. It ain’t Satcmo’s 1905 Storyville, folks, it’s 2015. Change does happen. Gotta deal wid it.

I’d recommend to take it ALL in. But what do I knowI’m a NOLA rookie who plans to return many more times. Bless New Orleans & all it’s been through to return to greatness. Did I recommend Treme, yet?!

Doug Ramsey

Doug is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about jazz has paralleled his life in journalism... [Read More]

Rifftides

A winner of the Blog Of The Year award of the international Jazz Journalists Association. Rifftides is founded on Doug's conviction that musicians and listeners who embrace and understand jazz have interests that run deep, wide and beyond jazz. Music is its principal concern, but the blog reaches past... Read More...

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